by Sarah McLellan, USA TODAY Sports

by Sarah McLellan, USA TODAY Sports

Not much â?? if anything â?? is a given in the Coyotes' almost four-year existence without ownership.

Even normal protocol, like re-signing players, is challenged.

The Coyotes would have had a stranglehold on franchise defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson's rights once his current contract expires at the conclusion of this season as all teams do once their players reach restricted free agency.

But a tame budget regulated by the NHL would have made Ekman-Larsson an easy target for an offer sheet from other teams.

That threat was enough to fast-track negotiations with Ekman-Larsson's camp that eventually ended Friday in a six-year extension worth $33 million, positioning Ekman-Larsson as the cornerstone of this Coyotes blue line.

"Why wait and risk it when we could structure something that works for us," general manager Don Maloney said. "As far as I'm concerned, a win-win for everybody. He gets a really good contract, and we lock up a very good player for some time."

Talks on a new deal started in the offseason, before the lockout, but the Coyotes were interested to see the parameters of the new collective bargaining agreement. Once that was settled, communication resumed but didn't peak until about a month ago â?? especially after the Calgary Flames sent an offer sheet to Colorado forward Ryan O'Reilly, who had been in a contract dispute with the Avalanche. That stalemate ended quickly when the Avalanche decided to match the terms of the deal but if they didn't, they would have lost O'Reilly to the Flames for an exchange of draft picks.

"When the offer sheet came out on Ryan O'Reilly, it really put us into override to a degree in the sense that we just felt we're potentially vulnerable to an offer sheet in the offseason given our situation and we thought if we can get a deal that makes sense to us then looking at where he is now and anticipating where he'll be in the next few years, then we need to do it," Maloney said.

In just his third NHL season, Ekman-Larsson has already catapulted into the Norris Trophy conversation for the league's best defenseman with 17 points, a plus-8 rating and a team-high 25:07 of ice time per game â?? this after the 21-year-old played in all 82 games last season, scoring 32 points, and followed that up with a standout playoff performance.

"I knew my contract was up after this year, so I just tried to play good every game and work hard in practice to help the team win," Ekman-Larsson said. "That's what I have to do, and I'm not going to change anything. I just have to keep doing what I do."

Maloney said the Coyotes would have matched any offer sheet presented to Ekman-Larsson, but they avoid that scenario â?? and limited the opportunity for Ekman-Larsson to raise his price tag â?? with this midseason deal, a potential steal if the youngster continues to improve.

"It was really a situation where we thought a future contract was going to be more expensive, not less," Maloney said. "So all in all, we felt it was a fair deal. We were able to structure the contract so it's paying a little less in the first few seasons, which gives us a little flexibility early on, and certainly it pays him as one of the top defensemen in the league."

Ekman-Larsson, taken sixth overall by the Coyotes in the 2009 draft, really jumped onto the team's radar in an August tournament before his draft year. He stayed in Sweden until moving to the United States to split time between the Coyotes and their American Hockey League affiliate in 2010-11.

Since then, he has played in every Coyotes game and even spent the lockout under the organization's guidance, choosing to report to Portland of the AHL.

"Every time you draft a player, you hope they mature quickly and become stars and front-line players in the league," Maloney said. "I think in Oliver's case, it was really the second half of last season and his performance in the playoffs that we really felt we went from hoping we had something special to realizing we do have something special by the combination of skills and maturity and poise he shows on the ice."

Slapping a monetary value on those intangibles isn't easy, and the Coyotes scrutinized recent deals handed out to similar talents.

Reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson was at the ceiling with his seven-year, $45.5 million contract from the Ottawa Senators. But a seven-year deal worth $38.5 million that kicked in this season for the Buffalo Sabres' anchor on defense, Tyler Myers, was more in-tune with Ekman-Larsson's showing.

Usually conservative about long-term deals, Maloney knew he wouldn't be able to avoid a lucrative contract for an emerging player when he asked other general managers around the league about Ekman-Larsson's status.

"It came back, 'This is elite. You have to pay for it. It's not going to be cheap,'" Maloney said.

Now, the Coyotes have the bookends of their defense, Ekman-Larsson and Keith Yandle, locked up long term with Yandle under contract for three more seasons after this one.

"It feels great, and I'm really excited," Ekman-Larsson said. "It's a big day for me and my parents. I'm really excited to stay for six more years."

They'll have a handful of free-agent forwards to sort through this offseason, and goalie Mike Smith is also set to become an unrestricted free agent.

But the Coyotes' strength â?? as it is on the ice â?? remains their defense.

"Anybody that follows hockey whatsoever or follows us in particular, when you watch us and when you watch this young man play, you know he's not only a star now but he has the chance to be one of the best players in this league for a long, long time," Maloney said. "That's why we stepped up and did it."